Close Encounters of the Celebrity Kind...
Gimme Shelter: Writer-Director Jonah Markowtiz Talks About His Feature Debut
Expanded Edition of 4-2-08 Windy City Times Interview
by Richard Knight, Jr.
Writer-Director Markowitz and Trevor Wright and Brad Rowe, the two comely stars of his gay coming out, fall in love drama Shelter
Out writer-director Jonah Markowitz is justly proud of his first feature film, Shelter (which opens this Friday at the Music Box Theatre).  
It’s an appealing queer themed coming out, falling in love story that focuses on two hunky surfers in sunny California, Zach
(newcomer Trevor Wright) and Shaun (played by Brad Rowe familiar to gay audiences as the object of Sean Hayes’ lust in
Billy
Hollywood’s Screen Kiss
).  Markowitz talked with Windy City Times about the film from his home in California as he drove through LA
traffic.  Highlights:

WINDY CITY TIMES (WCT):  Congratulations on your first feature as a writer and director.  That’s quite an accomplishment.

JONAH MARKOWITZ (JM):  Thank you so much.  We’re all very proud of it.

WCT:  Shelter has characters that are into surfing.  Is that in your background?

JM:  I started surfing when I did a movie called
Blue Crush.  I worked as an art director on that movie so I started doing that.  More
than anything, I wanted to do a film that fell in love doing something that was sort of very traditionally “male” – something that men
do to bond and usually out of doors – like hunting or camping or dirt biking or snowboarding or surfing.  The way that surfing fit in
was that it was something that was outdoors and it was also easy for me to set it in a place that had that element as well as being
an urban environment, which was really important.

WCT:  You sure it wasn’t just an excuse to spend lots and lots of days around nearly naked hunks (laughs)?

JM:  Well living in California that’s sort of a given.  It served a couple of purposes I’ll just say (laughs).

WCT:  As a surfer yourself and being integrated into that subculture a little bit, is it a group that’s particularly homophobic?  My
guess is that it would be a little more laid back.

JM:  I think it’s both.  I think it’s like anything else in the sports world, you will find both.  Mostly it’s about people out there surfing
because that’s what they love and they’re not really interested in what other people are doing.

WCT:  There are a lot of issues in the movie – coming out, the responsibility of parenting, the search for a relationship, your first
gay sex, the pros and cons of pursing a career in the arts – did your own evolution as a gay man follow a similar arc?

JM:  It actually didn’t.  There’s little pieces of me in this film like in anything that you love; in anything that you create there are
going to be little pieces and bits of you in it but the storyline – no.  It was not my story.

WCT:  I’m a middle aged gay man so at this point Coming Out stories for me are a dime a dozen but even as I’m saying this I
know these are still important stories to tell, right?

JM:  They are.  But I think differently then they used to be.  I think that the Coming Out story is a different story now and I think
you can see that in Shelter in the way that Zach’s friends react to him.  It’s more like his friends are upset that he never told them in
the first place.

WCT:  Yes, yes – that’s a huge shift culturally.  Was Zach or his sister or any of the characters based on people you knew?

JM:  When I’m writing characters I draw them from all kinds of different people and I meld them together.

WCT:  Let’s talk about casting for a moment.  Were any openly gay actors considered?  I know that there are not very many but I’m
always curious about that.

JM:  Some did audition, yes.  I don’t really ask people if they’re gay or straight when they walk in the door.  It’s just not how I like to
conduct any business because I don’t appreciate when people do it to me so I didn’t know and it wasn’t important to me.  Actually, in
my opinion, straight men seem more comfortable auditioning for gay roles than gay men do.

WCT:  Why is that?

JM:  I think it’s just the pressure of being out in Hollywood and being an out actor and the stigma that goes along with that.  If you’
re straight and you play gay and the question “Are you gay or are you straight?” gets asked you can answer that you’re straight and
not be afraid that you’re going to be typecast, which a lot of gay actors are afraid of.

WCT:  I’ve asked so many directors and actors when we’re ever going to see a change in this and the consensus seems to be that it
won’t happen until there’s a generational shift.  Would you agree with that?

JM:  I think it would be wonderful if gay actors were more comfortable playing gay parts but I don’t think they should get the parts
because they’re gay.  That’s just as discriminatory as not giving them the parts because they’re straight.  I really do so I’m a little
caught in the middle of that debate.  I think the best person should be hired.  Trevor (who plays Zach) is also not an artist or an
uncle but he was able to play that.  These guys are actors and they play the character, gay or straight.  Hopefully, we will get to the
point where the gay actors are competing with the straight actors for the same gay roles.  But trying to find gay actors to play
something just because it’s a gay part is almost a step backwards in our fight, you know?

WCT:  Sure.  I take your point but it’s still so important to our community – that label.  I mean I’m going to identify you as an
“openly gay” writer and director.  I know that it can also be off putting – “I’m a writer/director not a gay writer/director.”  But until we
reach true equality I think it’s still so important to single that out, it’s like a badge of honor in my mind.  How do you feel about that?

JM:  I’m fine with it.  I just don’t want to impose on other people and make them feel uncomfortable.  For me it’s my personal
choice and my life experiences have led me to that but other people have different experiences.  I wish everybody would be like that
and honestly, I wish it would get to the point where it didn’t matter and you didn’t have to say it.  It wouldn’t have to be labeled “a
gay film” or “a gay director” but it’s a tough one.

WCT:  Was it awkward to choreograph the love scenes for these two straight actors?

JM:  It wasn’t awkward at all and this goes back to what we were talking about before.  I didn’t want to tell them what it was like to be
with another man or how they should act or what they should do.  We talked about what it felt like to spend a whole day in bed with
somebody and how rare that is and how precious that is.  I let them go from there and that’s why I think it feels so genuine and
right.

WCT:  
Heath Ledger said to me when he talked about the love scenes in Brokeback Mountain, “It was all so easy because you just boil
it down to ‘you’re in love with another person and certainly everybody knows how that feels and has felt desire.’”

JM:  Exactly and that’s just what Trevor (Wright who plays Zach) and Brad (Rowe who plays Shaun) did.

WCT:  Harvey Fierstein said to me 20+ years ago when doing press for the
Torch Song Trilogy movie, “I’ve got a thousand gay stories
I want to tell.”  What are some that you’d like to put on the screen?

JM:  There are so many stories that I want to tell and I don’t know if they’re gay stories or not gay stories.  I’m not sure what that
means.  I want to tell stories about love and about life and passion and loss.  I think those are the stories I want to tell whether it’s
two men or a man and a woman or three women or eight men and twelve women—

WCT: (laughs) That sounds good!  You can call that one
Shortbus.

JM:  Exactly (laughs).  I just want to tell stories we all can relate to.

WCT:  Is there one that you’re working on?

JM:  I have a couple.  There all across the board.  I’ve got an adventure script I’m working on, I’ve got a sci-fi script I’m working on,
I’ve got another family drama I’m working on.  Some of them have gay characters, some have all gay characters, some have no gay
characters.  I’m just trying to figure out what the next right choice is.

WCT:  I’m sure it’s hard to get any movie done, no matter the subject matter.

JM:  Yes, getting one done certainly doesn’t guarantee getting another one done that’s for sure.

WCT:  I’m going to switch paths for a moment.  I know your background includes a lot of different kinds of films working as an art
director and production designer and that includes
Meet the Fockers.  I’m writing for the gay audience – have you got any Barbra
Streisand stories?

JM:  (crestfallen)  I don’t actually, I wish I did!  But I didn’t have that much contact with her and I’m not going to make something
up (laughs).  I’m sorry.  If it was my choice, of course, I’d have plenty of stories.

WCT:  I know there’s a short time window between the film being in the theatres and on DVD – why should people make the effort to
go out and see it on the big screen?

JM:  What’s really revolutionary is that Here! TV gave us a theatrical release on this movie and there are so few gay movies that get
that.  They actually financed the movie and if people want to keep seeing movies like this in theatres it’s very important that they go
out the week that it opens to prove that there’s an audience for movies like this.  They want to go to the cinema and see their
stories up on the screen.  They want to support these kinds of films because that’s how these movies wind up getting made.

WCT:  And I also think it’s a great date movie.

JM:  And it’s a great date movie.  You’re guaranteed to get laid if you go see it (laughs).